Liberal Lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood Awaited Jean Nassif Payments for Luxury Porsche at ICAC
Liberal lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood told the Independent Commission Against Corruption that he paid consultant Anita Perrottet a $10,000 monthly retainer for a “mum’s perspective” on vaping. Counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, pressed Greenwood on evidentiary inconsistencies regarding the $660,000 total payout, noting a complete lack of emails or direct phone records reflecting actual work performed for Greenwood’s lobbying firm, Beckington.
Contradictory Testimony Deepens ICAC Scrutiny Over Payments
The corruption inquiry is investigating whether Greenwood, business partner Christian Ellis, and former Liberal powerbroker Charles Perrottet shared in a $2 million bribe from developer Jean Nassif. According to evidence presented by Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, the illicit funds were allegedly washed through Beckington and later through JPG Advisory, a firm Greenwood established independently. Greenwood maintained during the hearing that Anita Perrottet provided high-value strategic insight concerning a vaping-related client. However, public hearings revealed stark contradictions between Greenwood and Perrottet regarding how they communicated. Greenwood previously claimed they held weekly Zoom sessions lasting up to an hour. Perrottet countered that their interactions were entirely ad hoc, conducted either in person or through her husband Charles’s phone.
“I suggest to you that the reason that you and Anita haven’t got your stories straight is because Anita was not working for Beckington genuinely at that time,” Dwyer asked during the proceedings. Greenwood insisted she did.
Investigators also explored how Charles Perrottet factored into the arrangement. Greenwood told the commission that although Charles offered guidance on navigating planning outcomes for Nassif, Charles requested no direct remuneration. Instead, those funds were directed into Macquarie Consulting, a marketing business owned by Anita Perrottet.
Luxury Car Expectations and Disputed Paper Trails
Text message exchanges introduced during the inquiry laid bare the financial pressures and expectations of the lobbyists involved. Messages between Greenwood and Ellis revealed frustration over delayed payments from Nassif’s construction entity, Toplace. Greenwood complained to Ellis that he found Nassif’s tardiness “really disrespectful” because he had a luxury vehicle scheduled for delivery. “Good because the Porsche comes in January, and I’m getting worried, but it’s also just really disrespectful from him,” Greenwood wrote in text messages recovered by the commission.
The financial arrangement was allegedly tied to Beckington securing a fast-tracked planning process for Nassif’s developments, with a promised reward of $1 million per fast-tracked project. To support this claim, Greenwood pointed to a handwritten note on a pink or fuchsia piece of paper folded into the back of an associate’s phone. Dwyer challenged the authenticity of this document, noting that neither Larissa Mouawad, general manager of Toplace, nor company lawyer Sharangan Maheswaran had mentioned any such paper during earlier private examinations. When questioned whether the document was a recent invention to retroactively justify the payments, Greenwood denied the allegation.